Overheard a guy at the coffee shop say 'digital art isn't real art'

He was talking to his friend about my tablet screen while I was working on a piece... said it was just 'pushing buttons.' I spent like 20 hours last week on a single portrait, getting the skin tones right in Procreate. It made me think about how much skill it actually takes, even if the tools are different. Does anyone else get tired of having to explain that?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessa_clark7411d ago

My cousin said the same thing about photography when he got his first digital camera in 2005. It’s the same old argument with new tools. I mean, you still need an eye for color and light and all that, the software just gives you different brushes. That guy probably thinks a synthesizer isn’t a real instrument either. It’s just lazy gatekeeping, idk.

felixfisher11d ago

2005 was the first digital camera? That's wild to me because I remember my family having a little point and shoot way before that, like around 1998. It feels like the argument against new tools always pops up right when they get good enough for regular people to use them. The synthesizer comparison is perfect, people said the same thing about electric guitars once. It's just fear of change dressed up as protecting some pure art form.

lily_singh26d agoMost Upvoted

Ngl my ceramics professor in college said the same stuff about 3D printed pottery. Spent a whole lecture calling it "cheating" even though you still have to design the model and understand clay behavior. People just get weird about tools they don't get.